Stock index futures rose on Monday, with investors poised to scoop up shares beaten down in last week's sell-off, while a report that Brocade Communications Systems Inc put itself up for sale may fan deal optimism.

Before the bell, shares of Brocade jumped 17.7 percent to $9.01 after the Wall Street Journal reported the data storage equipment maker has put itself on the selling block, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Journal reported that Oracle Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co were potential bidders for Brocade company, but a deal was not imminent, and Brocade might not even go ahead with a sale.

Monday's economic diary is light, with the Institute for Supply Management September reading on the vast services sector due at 10 a.m. EDT. Economists forecast a reading of 50.0 versus 48.4 in August, according to a Reuters survey.

S&P 500 futures rose 5.80 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures climbed 41 points and Nasdaq 100 futures jumped 10 points.

I suspect we're probably seeing some bargain hunting before the earnings season kicks off, said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners in New York. We're probably halfway through this pullback that we've encountered over the last few weeks.

After rallying nearly 60 percent from March through late September, the benchmark S&P 500 index <.SPX> capped a four-day losing streak on Friday. It has fallen more than 4 percent from its peak, weighed by concerns about the strength of the economic recovery.

Last week's top casualties included financials, industrial and technology shares.

In other M&A news, Prudential Financial Inc

said it is exploring a sale of its investment and fund management businesses in South Korea. The deal could fetch about $850 million and trigger a wave of consolidation in the country's brokerage and asset management sectors, where more than 100 companies compete.

There may be some market caution, however, after Nouriel Roubini, a leading economist who predicted the scale of global financial troubles, said a longer, U-shaped recovery was possible, with leading economies underperforming perhaps for three years. He said there was also an increasing risk of a double-dip scenario.

Major equity markets were little-changed in Europe on Monday.

Bank of America Corp was up 2 percent to $16.67 and among the stocks to watch after the Journal reported the bank planned to select an emergency chief executive this week if legal issues force Ken Lewis to leave before year-end. The paper cited a person familiar with the situation [ID:nBNG157382].

In other banking news, Goldman Sachs raised its view on the U.S. large-cap bank sector to attractive from neutral. The brokerage raised Wells Fargo & Co to buy. The Select Sector SPDR Financial ETF was up 0.8 percent before the bell.

(Reporting by Ellis Mnyandu; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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